Blessed be your name

Last night I had some major flashbacks of hard days in January 2006. Addison had just been born, we were so excited to finally have a baby and days later-- her birthmom changed her mind and decided she might want to parent Addison instead. We were heartbroken-- beyond heartbroken. It was probably the hardest time of our married life. But throughout the time of waiting to find out whether she'd be our baby or not-- the song "Blessed be your Name" (Matt Redman) was really big.

I remember times of just singing that song:

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name 

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

There were times that it was all I could do through the tears to just sing parts of that song.........
Fast forward a few years-- last night we were driving home from church and "Blessed be your name"
came on the radio-- Addison was sitting behind me and starts singing along.  I began thinking back 
to how many times I sang the exact song just dreaming of being a mom and parenting that precious 
baby!  It was amazing to look back all those years-- and to hear my girl singing the words.

When the song was over-- she said "Mom, that's my favorite song, that I wish we had on your iPod"....
Thank the Lord for the blessing of being her mom!

Cute things....

Just thinking of two cute things that I will probably forget within a couple months so:

1-- Isaac calls his Grandparents "Bee-pa" & "Mee-maw"

2-- When Levi needs to go poopy he'll run to the bathroom and yell "Mom, don't talk"-- and you can't look at him or talk to him again till he's done. If you try to he gets a very panicked sounding voice and says "mom, don't talk"...... :)

Witches & ???

This week at phy ed the kids were playing some Witches & Warlock game-- Addison told my mom that they played a game called "Witches & Lilacs".

You can say it Isaac....

Levi has a hard time saying his F's-- so a word like "foot" sounds more like "butt".... anyway, my dad & Matt are always trying to get him to say his F's so they'll make him crazy by trying to get him to sound out his F. "Levi say Ff-Ff--Ffoot".... and on and on it goes. The other day in the van, Isaac and Levi were in their seats and I hear Levi saying to Isaac, "Isaac, say motorcycle, Ff-Ff-Fmotorcycle"..... and Isaac would say Motorcycle and then Levi would say "Very Good Isaac!" and then they'd move on to other words, all of which Levi would sound out F's before having Isaac say the word.

Drills.....

Addison was telling me that they had a lyceum (sp?) at school the other day. Ronald McDonald was there and some other characters. I asked her what they were talking about and she said "Drills", I must have asked WHAT?! To which she replied "You know mom, drills, like Alcohol & Drills". Guess Red Ribbon week went well for the Kindergarten kids! :)

Kindergarten

Since Addison started Kindergarten last week she seems to think that Kindergarteners are pretty big stuff. One of the first mornings she got up and said to me "I think this Kindergartener is going to start doing push-ups when I get up, because Kindergarteners are really strong cause they do push-ups when they wake up." :)

Isaac

Isaac is talking a lot these days. Very funny boy-- assuming he will someday be able to say "Isaac" I figure I need to write down what he refers to himself as right now (age 2). Isaac calls himself "Deeka-deeka" (said pretty quickly). So if he sees a toy that he likes he says "deeka-deeka's car" or whatever. :) Such a sweet boy.

Old MacDonald....

Levi walks around a lot of the day singing.... "Old MacDonald had a barm, Levi, Levi-O".....

10? Like Me?

This past weekend we were at Lake Beauty. During a chapel session I was sitting outside the gym (too loud inside for Levi). Another little boy was playing outside as well. Levi wanted to talk to him, so I prompted him in saying "What's your name my name is Levi"-- Levi repeated the words and the other boy said his name was Jack. Next I told Levi to say "How old are you?" So Levi walked over and said "How old you are" and Jack responded "I'm TEN!" (Which by the way is hilarious cause Levi is determined he's 10-- has been for months). Anyway, Levi looked at Jack and very excitedly said "Oh, you're 10? Like me?"

IN LOVE

My parenting experiences are growing-- and any input would be appreciated!!

Today when I picked up Addison from school she was telling me that she's IN LOVE with a boy in her class. Let's just call him EH. She's so in love with him that she's going to marry him. She's decided he's a good boy to marry because he played at the castle the right way. And he stepped on her foot and he also told her something about someone farting in the barnyard.

The part I'm stumped on is I told her that there will be NO kissing this boy-- etc.... and she just keeps asking me WHY she can't kiss him...... I told her that she's 5 and there will be no kissing, but she still asks why. Then she asked if she can kiss him in the cafeteria, or the classroom, or the playground or at home? But WHY not?!

Boy am I glad summer school will be done in 3 days-- and maybe she'll forget about EH as quickly as she fell in love. And thankfully he's not in her kindergarten class next year. :)

Isaac

Last weekend my dad made a comment that has come true way too soon. Dad commented that he'd be shocked if I don't take these boys of mine on multiple trips to the emergency rooms with broken bones, cuts, falls, etc.... I was a little irritated that he said it, but the very next day while playing at mom & dad's house Isaac was determined to jump off of their mission-style furniture (wood arm-rests, etc...). He was on one chair and jumped from one side to the other and smacked his left eye on the arm-rest-- therefore had a black eye from that.

2 days later, while at home Addison & Isaac were riding on toys through the kitchen. Isaac had the John Deere tractor and Levi commented he wanted to ride-- so ran to the entry way to steal it from Isaac. Pretty soon there were big cries from Isaac and Levi was on the tractor. I picked up Isaac to comfort him and realized his eye (left one AGAIN) was dripping with blood-- his eye lid was cut up. We brought Isaac to the hospital-- they felt that it needed to be glued shut to keep the scar from being bad.

Day after his cut...

Anyway-- 3 days after that Matt & I brought the kids to the playground in town. Isaac is fearless so I try and stick with him on the equipment to be sure he's safe. He was climbing the main stairs-- and I was on the top of the stairs with Levi and he tipped over and fell from the top step to the ground. I was scrambling to try and grab him, but couldn't get him-- and he fell to the ground-- head first onto the wood chips below. What an AWFUL feeling to watch your baby fall to the ground probably 5-6 feet down. His face was full of wood chips-- and it looked like he had cut his tongue and after we got home I found the top of his head was scrapped up too.

I don't need to have another week like this for a LONG time. My dad was quite accident prone as a child as well-- so when he heard about this he just said if my Grandma was still alive she'd say that Isaac is living up to his middle name...... Isaac Michael (my dad is Michael)..... I told mom today that I'm changing Isaac's middle name-- she says it won't help-- he's already got it figured out. :(

Jesus

Tonight when it was time to read books to the kids Addison finally sat down quietly next to me (usually she's the wildest right when I need calm!). I was looking for a good "devotional" book for kids so I could read more about Jesus' death on the cross as I'm trying to implement more and more of this in the kids' daily discussions. And being today is Good Friday I wanted to talk about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. I read through Jesus dying and also his resurrection with Addison sitting right next to me-- the boys were in an all out fight over a counting book. So in the moment I explained to Addison again all about Jesus dying for our sins so that if we believe in Him and ask Him to live in our hearts we'll get to live in Heaven when we die. I also told her that Jesus lives in Mommy's & Daddy's heart, etc.... She finally listened longer than 20 seconds so I continued on, and then asked her if she'd like to pray and have Jesus come live in her heart too. And she said "YES!"

I prayed and she repeated all the words with me. I was so happy, but I had to deal with 2 little fighting boys, so couldn't dwell on it too long. :) So when I was tucking Addison & Levi in for the night I asked Addison to explain to Levi what she prayed about. She told him "Levi, I prayed that Jesus will come live in my heart. And we're thankful that He died on the cross because it forgives us of our sins". I hope we can continue to teach more and more to our children about Him. So thankful for this houseful of beautiful kids-- and just want them to KNOW Christ as their own.

Addison-isms

Today on the way to school Addison pointed out the local Vet-- where Matt brought one of our dogs recently. While we continued on she asked "is the vet a dog doctor" and I started rambling about it being a cat doctor, dog doctor, horse doctor, cow doctor, etc... and she said "it can't be all of those"-- to which I replied, "yes, its a doctor for all those animals"..... so she started asking again if the vet is a dog doctor-- I said "yes, she is a doctor for all animals" and Addison still not getting it said "so it's a girl dog?" Finally I understood what she was thinking-- she thought the vet was a DOG that was a doctor!

5-year-old-mind

Today on the way home from school Addison was mad that we weren't going to stop at A&W and get a Root Beer Float-- she's obsessed with the A&W right now. So she was testing her power and begging to go anywhere. I explained that we already went out to eat too many times this week, etc... She requested to go to the local ice cream store-- and again I said "no". Just out of town she said "Well, mom, the reason I wanted to get Ice Cream today is because something very sad happened after school today". I turned on my serious voice and asked her what happened. Addison says "My friend died after school today-- my friend Belle (this is an imaginary friend)-- she got kinda old and she died..... so her family all went to the ice cream store to celebrate cause she died".... It took everything in me to not burst out laughing. :) She continued on and on about Belle being old and dying-- so I asked her how OLD Belle was-- to which she said "I'm not sure, she was either 17 or 18-- which one is older" I told her 18 and she started in about "18 is really old, so she died". These are the conversations that are so funny-- 5 year old kids have such a funny grasp of reality.

Ugh...

I really try hard to not complain-- especially when I consider how blessed I am to have a home, food, clothes and beautiful children. But today is a day that I'm starting to get frustrated with! I have LITERALLY swept the kitchen floor 7 times today, washed the dining room floor once, washed the kitchen table at least 3 times, moved chairs away from the counters 10+ times today, scrubbed the bathroom floor, washed, dried & put away at least 5 loads of laundry, served breakfast, lunch & ready to do dinner, and have given Addison & Levi 3 baths today (they keep going out to play in the mud)......... I'm pooped out and it's only 4:30-- still 2.5 hours left till I get everyone in bed..... Spring break is going to kill me. :)

Adoption

On Sunday, on the way to church Addison was talking about babies and said to me a time or two "Mom, remember when I was in your tummy".... and I was avoiding the subject with her-- I just would say, "Yes, I remember when you were a baby".... Adoption is something we've discussed with her in the past, but I just don't know how often we need to talk about it or how she feels when we talk about it or ??? So I kind of ignored the topic when she brought it up.

Then while continuing to drive I decided I needed to say something about it. So I said to her "Addison, do you remember what adopted is?" and she said "no, do you know what it means mom?" :) I told her I do know what it means and went on to explain that she grew in someone else's tummy-- not mine. But that Mommy & Daddy picked her special to be their daughter and that it's a very special thing, etc... She kept looking at me while I talked about it with her.... then she asked something that she's never asked before. She said "What did you name me?"-- I told her that the lady whose tummy she grew in named her Addison, but that we wanted her middle name to be Grace after Daddy's grandma Grace. She was quiet for a minute and then said "Why didn't that lady name me something better like Beana?" (this is an imaginary name she uses a lot pronounced "Bean" "a") ........... :)

Oh the mind of a 5-year-old. And that was the end of the conversation. A 5-year-old grasps it so differently and it's so hard as an adoptive mom to know exactly how to explain things to her and to know when to say things and when to let it go.